New York Marathon ran anyway;' thousands helped

Runners who were planning to run in the New York City Marathon run through Central Park in Manhattan in an alternative marathon in New York, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2012. The official race was canceled because of Superstorm Sandy. (AP Photo/Cara Anna)

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s decision Friday to cancel the New York City marathon in the wake of Hurricane Sandy storm damage was a necessary and wise course of action in the face of mounting criticism.

Using city resources to provide protection for thousands of runners in the world’s largest marathon, as well as freeing up hotel rooms and generators for lodging, would have been cruel in the face of the losses and hardships New Yorkers endured last week.

But an amazing thing happened in New York on Sunday: They ran anyway.

Organized, as so many spontaneous events are, on Facebook, an alternative marathon came together in less than 24 hours, called appropriately, “Run Anyway.” The organizers put together a Central Park 26.2 mile run with a donation dropoff for Sandy Relief at the original marathon’s finish line .

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Critics had blasted the marathoners who traveled from around the world to realize their running dream as selfish for wanting the race to go on as planned. On Sunday, hundreds of those same marathoners selflessly wore race shirts and filled backpacks with supplies, taking the ferry to hard-it Staten Island. There, they ran to stricken neighborhoods to help.

Central Park, where the race finish line remained in place, swarmed with runners who took to the park trails.

Runners could complete four loops of Central Park for the requisite 26.2 miles. Each was asked to donate food, clothing and money to Sandy Relief, which would be delivered to Staten Island later that day.

“A lot of people just wanted to finish what they started,” said Lance Svendsen, who organized the Run Anyway event. So many people showed up that the race had to start in waves beginning at 8 a.m.

The race became a matter of joy and fellowship among runners.

It was described in an Associated Press account as a a throwback to the original New York City Marathon in 1970, which was run ragtag with 127 people and stayed completely within Central Park. But this time, runners collected and dropped off donations for storm victims.

Instead of running his first marathon, Akil Defour of Brooklyn climbed 20 flights of stairs in a building without power or heat in Far Rockaway, Queens, to deliver water, blankets and peanut butter sandwiches, AP reported.

Mary Wittenberg, the president of the New York Road Runners, which organizes the marathon, helped deliver food to a Staten Island family whose house was heavily damaged. “There are so many more suffering in our community who need our collective, undivided attention and all the resources we can muster,” the NYRR said in a statement Sunday.

The marathoners’ image went in one day from self-serving athletes blind to the ills of the city to creators of a movement helping rescue New York from the tragedies brought by Hurricane Sandy.

Canceling the race in its official form was the right call. Running anyway was the better ending.